The Hyundai Santa Cruz truck is headed for production ‘ASAP’

Hyundao’s entry into the highly competitive North American truck market, a production version of its Santa Cruz concept, will be heading to market sooner rather than later, according toAutocar.

While Hyundai didn’t give a specific date for the release of the truck, Chief Design Officer Luc Donckerwolke says it should see dealership showrooms “as soon as possible.”

“From my side it is finished, the process to put it into production is now underway,” he told the magazine.

The truck was first released as a concept back in 2015 at the Detroit international auto show, but fixations on other projects caused the vehicle to be pushed back a few years. Now, Hyundai says the Santa Cruz could be ready for 2020.

It is unclear if the Santa Cruz would enter the compact or full-size truck segment, but either way, it’s going to have some stiff competition by way of Ford’s extremely popular F-150, or the forthcoming Ranger if it aims for that category. The Toyota Tacoma and Tundra also have a huge presence in this segment.

Donckerwolke also confirmed Kia would consider releasing its own version of the truck with exterior similarities, but that will come later.